


we drew our own constellations

by greeksalad



Series: fingertips stained with hope [2]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Bending (Avatar), F/F, Fluff, Kid Fic, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:41:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25229989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greeksalad/pseuds/greeksalad
Summary: Kya comes home to an empty apartment.
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Kya II
Series: fingertips stained with hope [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824820
Comments: 32
Kudos: 220





	we drew our own constellations

“Catch!”

“ _Hey!_ No fair! I wasn’t even looking!”

Kya watched amusedly as Ikki and Jinora tossed a ball back and forth on the lawn, bending it through the air to make it increasingly more difficult for the recipient to catch. 

Sighing, she settled back on her elbows in the grass, letting the afternoon sunlight warm her skin. She’d been called into the clinic early that morning to help train new recruits and had ended up spending most of the day down there. Just as she’d been about to head home, Pema had called her and asked if she could look after the kids for an hour or two; apparently, she had an impromptu meeting with Meelo’s principal (something about him calling his teacher a coward?) and Tenzin was stuck in a council meeting, which meant there was no one at home to look after the other kids. Kya had agreed to watch them, of course, but that didn’t discount the fact that she was exhausted and desperate to get home.

This wasn’t helped by the fact that Lin had agreed to stay home with Sivah.

It wasn’t that Kya didn’t _trust_ her with their daughter, but, well, it was her first time looking after Sivah (or any baby, for that matter) for a whole day on her own, and Kya couldn’t help but worry, just a little.

It had been two weeks since they’d officially adopted their daughter, two and a half since Kya had first found her in a back-alley trash pile.

After scrounging up one of Pema’s old baby name books (they’d decided not to tell anyone right away, so when Pema had looked at them suspiciously and asked why they’d needed a baby name book, Lin had immediately panicked and said they were adopting a cat. To this day, Ikki was still mad that there was no cat), they’d eventually settled on the name Sivah: a strong Earth Kingdom name for a strong little girl.

That night, after filling out her adoption paperwork, they’d both sat on the floor and cried.

(Sivah had staged a loud protest in her crib at being left out until Lin got up to get her. Upon being plopped down in Kya’s lap, she’d waved her chubby arms around and gurgled happily up at them, dribbling all over the papers, and then her and Lin cried some more because _that was their daughter._ )

The day after, on her way back from dropping off the adoption paperwork at the hospital, Lin had been ambushed by the press, who had apparently been notified by some anonymous tipoff. Needless to say, their plan to keep things quiet for a while hadn’t lasted very long.

The very next day, an article headlined ‘Chief Beifong Adopts With Her Gal Pal’ was on the front cover of every newspaper in the city. Lin had thought the headline was the funniest thing in the world and had nearly cried laughing when she’d first read it. Ever since, she’d taken to putting her hand in Kya’s face every time she leaned down to kiss her and saying, “Sorry, we’re just friends,” then cackling with laughter in a very un-Lin-like way.

(Kya had come home that afternoon to find the article cut out, framed and hung above their fireplace. She didn’t have the heart to take it down.)

Just as she was contemplating whether or not she could get away with taking a nap in the grass, Kya heard Pema’s minivan pulling into the driveway. She sighed with relief. _Finally._ “Kids!” she called, getting to her feet. “Your mom’s back!”

Ikki and Jinora raced off towards the front of the house, Kya following at a more sedate pace as she brushed the grass off her skirt.

Pema was walking up the path as Kya stepped out of the front door. A sulky-looking Meelo was trailing behind her, moodily scuffing his feet through the gravel. “Thank you for watching them,” Pema said, relief evident in her voice. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Not a problem,” Kya said, smiling at her sister-in-law. She hoped she didn’t look as tired as she felt. “I hate to leave so abruptly, but if you don’t need me for anything else, I’ll be heading home.”

Pema waved her off. “No, no, you’re good. Go take a nap; from one tired parent to another, you look like you need it.”

Kya groaned internally. _She really, really did._

\--

It wasn’t a long walk back to her and Lin’s apartment. They lived in a decent part of town, close enough to the police headquarters that Lin didn’t feel like she was completely unreachable in an emergency but far enough away from the centre of the city that the streets weren’t filled with cars and vendors at all hours of the day.

It was a pleasant afternoon; the sun cast broad golden arcs across the pavement, making Kya almost tempted to take her shoes off so she could feel the warm concrete against her feet, and it was that blessed time of day right before the evening work commute where, for the most part, the streets were quiet and empty.

By the time she was unlocking her front door, Kya felt a little more revitalised than she had when she’d left Pema’s.

Her good mood didn’t last long, though.

As she stepped inside, she wasn’t met with the sound of Lin singing softly under her breath (which Lin swore wasn’t a thing she did), or Sivah clattering around with her toys. The whole apartment was completely silent.

“Hello?” Kya called, cautiously poking her head into the living room.

No reply.

“Lin? Are you here?”

When there was no response, Kya’s heart skipped a beat **.** She forced herself to take a deep breath. Pulling her phone from her pocket, she began to move through the apartment, checking all the rooms. There was no sign of Lin or Sivah anywhere.

Kya unlocked her phone with shaky fingers and called Lin. As the dial tone rang out, jarringly loud in the silence, she sucked in another calming breath, forcing herself to look at this logically. It was fairly unlikely that they’d been abducted or anything like that; there were no signs of a struggle, and Lin was more than capable of defending herself and Sivah. Surely they were just out on a walk, right?

Suddenly, a ringtone started blaring out from somewhere in the kitchen. Kya started so violently at the unexpected noise that she almost threw her phone across the room; then, she groaned.

That was Lin’s phone.

If it had been anyone else that was missing, Kya would’ve been more worried about the fact that they’d left their phone behind. However, Lin was infamously terrible at remembering to take her phone with her. (Half the time, _Kya_ was the one that carried it if they went out somewhere, seeing as she was the only one that actually remembered to bring it.) Therefore, the fact that her phone was still lying face-down on the kitchen island wasn’t exactly a cause for alarm.

Kya massaged her temples. “Spirits, Lin, of all the times to forget your phone,” she muttered. “Okay. Focus, Kya. Where would she be?”

Suddenly, Kya slapped her palm to her forehead. _Of course._

Hanging up on Lin, she scrolled through her contacts until she found the one she wanted, then tapped the call button.

“Hello, this Sohin from Republic City Police Department speaking, how can I help?”

Kya could’ve cried with relief at the sound of Lin’s secretary’s voice. “Hi, Sohin **,** this is Kya. Is Lin in right now?”

“Yes, she is, why-”

“Coolthanksbye,” Kya said, and shoved her phone back in her pocket, already halfway out the front door. Time to go kick her wife’s ass.

\--

“ _Lin Beifong.”_

Lin looked up mildly from her paperwork as the door to her office crashed open. “Yes, dear?”

Kya stood in the doorway, glaring at her wife, hands planted on her hips. “You-”

What rage she’d initially had fizzled out somewhat at the absolutely _adorable_ image in front of her. Lin was sat at her desk, reading glasses perched on her nose and several documents spread out in front of her. Strapped to her chest in a baby wrap was a fast-asleep Sivah. Her tiny dark-haired head was resting on Lin’s collarbone as she dozed, and one hand was curled loosely around Lin’s badge, like she’d been playing with it before she fell asleep.

“How were the new recruits?” Lin asked, scribbling something down on one of the reports. In spite of her anger, Kya’s heart warmed at how careful she was not to jostle Sivah.

“They were good; a little bit incompetent, but that’s to be–” Kya paused, thrown off by this unexpected turn of conversation. “ _Lin._ You can’t just go out _with our daughter_ and _not tell me_.” She threw her hands in the air. “I mean, seriously! Do you have _any idea_ how scary it was coming home and not being able to find you two? I thought you’d been _kidnapped;_ you could’ve been dead in a ditch somewhere, for all I knew!”

Lin, who had half-risen from her desk when Kya had started yelling, blinked in confusion. “Wait. Sohin didn’t tell you I was coming here?”

“Well, _obviously not,_ Lin,” Kya said waspishly.

Lin swore under her breath. “I forgot my phone, and I know you never check your emails, so I got her to call and tell you I was bringing Sivah here so I could get some work done for a bit.”

Kya face-palmed, muffling her groan into her hand. “I was looking after Tenzin’s kids for a while after work. She must’ve called me then; you know how terrible the reception is out there.”

After a beat, Lin stepped around her desk and hesitantly laid her hand on Kya’s arm. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I should’ve made sure you got the message. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Suddenly feeling absolutely exhausted, Kya sagged against her wife, turning so she could comfortably rest her head on Lin’s shoulder without squashing Sivah. “It’s okay,” she mumbled. “This is new for both of us. Just… make sure I know next time, okay? And I’m sorry for yelling at you.”

“It’s fine. I’d say I deserved it,” Lin said, tilting her head so she could kiss Kya’s cheek. “Give me a minute to pack up, and then we can head home, okay?”

“’kay,” Kya said, detangling herself from Lin and rubbing tiredly at her eyes as she plopped down into a chair in the corner of the room.

There was a tiny squawk from inside the baby wrap, like Sivah was announcing to the two of them that she was awake and wanted attention.

Lin rolled her eyes. “Oh, so you sleep the entire time you’re with me and wake up just when your other mom gets here? I see how it is.” Gently, she lifted Sivah out of the wrappings and passed her over to Kya, who was making grabby hands at her. “Here you go.”

Kya perched Sivah on her knee, absent-mindedly bouncing her up and down. “Hello there, darling,” she murmured. “Did you behave for your mom today?”

Over at her desk, Lin snorted. “If you consider crying for an hour straight and then trying to eat my badge _behaving,_ then yes, she was very well behaved.”

Sivah stared up at Kya, making little indignant noises, as if to say, “She woke me up and now she’s sassing me?”

Kya hummed consideringly. “Sounds pretty well-behaved to me,” she said, gentling tapping the tip of her daughter’s nose. Sivah blinked sleepily (her eyes, once a startlingly bright blue, had started to shift into a deep brown) and then, with surprising strength for a baby, reached out to tightly clutch Kya’s finger in her tiny hand.

Kya was suddenly overwhelmed with a surge of love for her little family, so strong and bright that for a second she thought she might burst into tears. She hadn’t thought it was even _possible_ to feel so content _,_ so unbearably and overwhelmingly happy and filled with love.

Lin’s hand on her shoulder made her jump. “Ready to go home?” her wife asked, effortlessly scooping up Sivah and resting her on her hip. She held out a hand to Kya.

Kya smiled, and took her hand. “Let’s go.”

**Author's Note:**

> that one cop that doesn’t keep up with the local news: i don’t know why the chief is carrying a baby around and at this point i’m too afraid to ask


End file.
